Essay on the Angel of a Woman in The Birthmark -- Birthmark Essays

Angel of a Woman in The Birthmark Nathaniel Hawthornes short story, The Birthmark, contains a wonderful mannequin of the perfect wife. This essay will develop that theme. In the opening paragraph of The Birthmark the narrator introduces Aylmer as a scientist who had made experience of a ghostlike affinity more attractive than any chemical one. Hawthornes description of the scientists love for Georgiana is apt, for love is just that religious. And the theme of this tale is a spiritual one. Through the course of the story Aylmer declines spiritually, while Georgiana advances spiritually. Even after Aylmer has persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife, he is not capable of winning her properly, unselfishly, because he had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weaned from them by any second passion. The narrator seeks to justify this error or want in Aylmer by explaining that it was not unusual for the love of science to rival the lov e of woman in its depth and absorbing energy. Already at the fountain of the tale, the reader perceives that Georgiana is going to be shortchanged in this marriage. She is exposed to the problem initially when her husband asks whether it never occurred to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed? Aylmer is in quest of physical perfection in his wife unfortunately he discounts her inner, spiritual value so clearly manifested in her comment To tell you the legality it has been so often called a charm that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so. In using the word simple she is organism honest and not sarcastic she is being humble and respectful of others (parents?) evaluation of herself. T... ...dab Laugh, thing of the senses You have earned the right to laugh. But there is no success, for with grand tenderness and concern for her husbands happiness, Georgiana softly says, I am dying The narrators beautifully poetic way of expressing the demise of the wife is memor able The fatal hand had grappled with the mystery of life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union with a mortal frame. The soul of this angelic, loving woman, lingering a moment near her husband, took its heavenward flight. A true angel of womankind is ascending to heaven. WORKS CITED Hawthorne, Nathaniel . The Birthmark Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library http//etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=HawBirt.sgm&images=images/modeng& entropy=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1